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EnBulycheva A
From psalm to a folk song: on the verbal texts of partes concertos
The verbal texts of the partes concertos of the 17th and 18th centuries were very diverse. Since the concerto is a paraliturgical genre, which means it allows considerable freedom, Russian Baroque composers had large opportunities. The statistics show that most often they chose liturgical texts, such as hymns (or, sticheras). A number of works during this period were reinterpreted in terms of genre, their liturgical function had changed. At the end of the 17th century some sticheras and irmoses were components of liturgical cycles, but later became separate compositions – concertos.
On the second place there were texts of the Psalms, that can appear in concertos both unchanged and with reductions. Compilations of lines from different Psalms are also quite common, during the last decades of the Baroque era there even appeared concertos on free verse arrangements by Michail Lomonosov and anonymous poets.
Until now, only one parody partes concerto has been known (First of all Today, Early in the Morning). We managed to find one part of another parody concerto written on the words of the folksong Something Knocked, Thundered in the Forest and dedicated to the chorister Maxim from Don, nicknamed Mosquito. This anonymous work shows how closely partes concertos could be related to the folksongs.
Key words
Russian Baroque, partes concerto, musical genre, Psalms, parody.
For citation
Bulycheva A. From psalm to a folk song: on the verbal texts of partes concertos // South-Russian musical anthology. 2020. No 2. Pp. 71–77.
